Cross Country:  Warriors Run at Woodruff Invite

The SHS Girls’ and Boys' Cross Country teams competed at the Peoria Woodruff Invitational Saturday at Detweiller Park in Peoria, the site of the annual IHSA state meet.  The girls placed 33rd out of 43 teams, while the boys placed 27th out of 47.

The girls' side had a freshman as the SHS first runner in. Mercedes Sanchez ran a 20.11, placing 79th of 502 runners. Emily Crossley was the second Sterling runner (223rd, 22.12), followed by Mary Franque, Alana Wolfe and Shawna Anderson scoring for the varsity team.

For the boys, Dylan Harkness ran a 16.09 for 37th place, earning a medal.  Josh Landis ran a best ever time of 17.05 and finished 127th.  Ethan Rocha ran an 18.00 as a freshman, placing 3rd for the team and 233rd out of 596 runners.  Zach Alston, a freshman, ran an 18.04 in 239th place and 4th place for the team.  Keaton Dir, a sophomore out for his first year, ran an 18.23 placing # 5 on the team.  All of these times were a season best performaces.

SHS Coach Nancy Gehrke:  “The best performance of the day goes to Josh Landis as he had a best ever time, the most even mile splits, and his last mile was his fastest mile. Dylan ran a great race, and was 50 seconds better than his time a year ago at the same meet. However, he knows he has a lot more to come yet.  There were 5 male athletes who ran at Detweiller for the first time. and had great races for their first huge meet: Ethan Rocha, Zach Alston, Keaton Dir and Zach DePuy.”

Next Up:  Sterling hosts the annual Twin Cities Meet Tuesday (9/13), with action at Hoover Park getting underway at 4:30 p.m.